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A lot of people struggle with what a decision can mean in your life. It is natural to have concerns about going down one path or not, and what it could mean. The reality is you can never predict what will happen in your life, so go with the flow…. Easier said than done.

This graphic based off the poem The Road Not Taken is by the incredibly talented artists at Zenpencils.com For their full article click here, or have a look below at this great piece.

Found this superb article by Lolly Daskal. A bunch of really good quotes to get you going, when your brain is telling you no. I really like them and I hope you do to. Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I am going to do a massive update today.

100 Motivational Quotes That Will Inspire You To Be Successful:

1. If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission. ~Anonymous

2. Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out. ~John Wooden

3. To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ~Anonymous

4. If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary. ~Jim Rohn

5. Trust because you are willing to accept the risk, not because it’s safe or certain. ~Anonymous

6. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. ~Swami Vivekananda

7. All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. ~Walt Disney

8. Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them. ~Anonymous

9. If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. ~Anonymous

10. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. ~Winston Churchill

11. Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly. ~Proverb

12. Successful entrepreneurs are givers and not takers of positive energy. ~Anonymous

13. Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them. ~Vaibhav Shah

14. Opportunities don’t happen, you create them. ~Chris Grosser

15. Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value. ~Albert Einstein

53. We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret. ~Earl Nightingale

54. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. ~Vidal Sassoon

55. The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place. ~Guy Kawasaki

56. I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing. ~Martha Stewart

57. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~Anonymous

58. The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same. ~Colin R. Davis

59. The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. ~Ralph Nader

60. Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. ~Maya Angelou

61. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. ~Bill Gates

62. A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them. ~Henry Kravis

63. The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. ~Mark Caine

64. People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy. ~Tony Robbins

65. When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. ~Audre Lorde

66. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. ~Mark Twain

67. The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. ~Bruce Lee

68. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life — think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. ~Swami Vivekananda

69. Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. ~Dale Carnegie

70. If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. ~ Jim Rohn

71. If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it — teach yourself to be impatient. ~Gurbaksh Chahal

72. Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning. ~Robert Kiyosaki

73. If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you! ~T. Harv Eker

74. You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. ~Steve Jobs

75. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to doDon’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. ~Jim Rohn

76. The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors. ~Napoleon Hill

77. The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. ~Denis Watiley

78. In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it. ~Jane Smiley

79. Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. ~George Bernard Shaw

80. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. ~Diane Ackerman

81. You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them. ~Michael Jordan

82. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~Jim Ryun

83. People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. ~Dale Carnegie

84. There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul. ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

85. Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter. ~Francis Chan

86. You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction. ~George Lorimer

87. To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can’t just accept the ones you like. ~Mike Gafka

90. To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.~ Anatole France

91. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all. ~Dale Carnegie
92. You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals. ~Booker T. Washington

93. Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~Theodore N. Vail

94. It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. ~Herman Melville

97. Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. ~Truman Capote

98. Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. ~John R. Wooden

99. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. ~Margaret Thatcher

100. A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done. ~Vince Lombardi

I really like these quotes found on Marc and Angel Hack Life. They are all about the power of changin how you think. You dont need to remember them all, but ask yourself some of these questions and see where the they take you.

You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

Don’t think of cost. Think of value.

Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.

Too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know.

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

If a person wants to be a part of your life, they will make an obvious effort to do so. Think twice before reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.

Making one person smile can change the world – maybe not the whole world, but their world.

Saying someone is ugly doesn’t make you any prettier.

The only normal people you know are the ones you don’t know very well.

Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.

As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have more friends and more important to have real ones.

Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when hundreds are against you.

Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go and move on.

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, etc…

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

Don’t choose the one who is beautiful to the world; choose the one who makes your world beautiful.

Falling in love is not a choice. To stay in love is.

True love isn’t about being inseparable; it’s about two people being true to each other even when they are separated.

While you’re busy looking for the perfect person, you’ll probably miss the imperfect person who could make you perfectly happy.

Never do something permanently foolish just because you are temporarily upset.

You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.

In life, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything.

When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.

Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

There isn’t anything noble about being superior to another person. True nobility is in being superior to the person you once were.

Trying to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

You will never become who you want to be if you keep blaming everyone else for who you are now.

People are more what they hide than what they show.

Sometimes people don’t notice the things others do for them until they stop doing them.

Don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do.

Being alone does not mean you are lonely, and being lonely does not mean you are alone.

Love is not about sex, going on fancy dates, or showing off. It’s about being with a person who makes you happy in a way nobody else can.

Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you. It takes someone really special to stay in your life and show how much they love you.

Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion; today is special.

Love and appreciate your parents. We are often so busy growing up, we forget they are also growing old.

When you have to start compromising yourself and your morals for the people around you, it’s probably time to change the people around you.

Learn to love yourself first, instead of loving the idea of other people loving you.

When someone tells you, “You’ve changed,” it might simply be because you’ve stopped living your life their way.

Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right.

Be happy. Be yourself. If others don’t like it, then let them be. Happiness is a choice. Life isn’t about pleasing everybody.

When you’re up, your friends know who you are. When you’re down, you know who your friends are.

Don’t look for someone who will solve all your problems; look for someone who will face them with you.

If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, you’re fooling yourself. That’s like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn’t eat him.

No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.

Many people are so poor because the only thing they have is money.

Learn to appreciate the things you have before time forces you appreciate the things you once had.

When you choose to see the good in others, you end up finding the good in yourself.

You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.

It’s better to know and be disappointed than to never know and always wonder.

There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.

Happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you. Most people depend on others to gain happiness, but the truth is, it always comes from within.

If you tell the truth, it becomes a part of your past. If you lie, it becomes a part of your future.

What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while.

You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.

Here are some superb inspirational quotes by JD Hooge speaking in Portland Oregon, USA at a Creative Morning’s event.

Be allergic to bullshit

Make the complex, simple

Be honest, build trust, be honest

Don’t believe in luck

Hustle

Be inspired by the pioneer spirit

Perfection is so last decade

Chase the small ideas

Begin anywhere

Slow down

Get Personal, Stay Personal

We are all making it up as we go along

My favourites of the bunch:

Be Honest, build trust, Be honest – This is essential not just in life but in business. If you have a company that sells something, as soon as you stop doing this you are finished unless you change quickly. In the early days of Google they are said to of had on the wall in their offices, “Don’t be Evil”.

Begin Anywhere – it is the hardest part of any journey. Whether you are going to cycle across the world, or you are trying to get motivated on the next project. Writ down the next step, and do it. Sounds simple but it is essentially the hardest part of any task. If you want to read more into this, then I recommend buying Getting Things Done by David Allen. He is the master of this philosophy, and he is a really genuine guy. He has worked with most of the Fortune 500 companies so he really knows his stuff whatever level you are at.

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Superbly put together video about the Universe. Featuring the voice of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Full credit list below… Superb video, superb soundtrack, very inspiring. Basically the background of the speech is astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson goes on to say “For me, that is the most profound revelation of 20th century astrophysics and I look forward to what the 21st century will bring us, given the frontiers that are now unfolding.”

Special thanks to Carl Sagan, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and NASA for their inspiration.

Most people have not heard of Evan Williams, but you sure would know the companies he has helped create, been CEO for etc. Twitter and Blogger anyone? On his blog, which is hosted by Blogger and has a link to his Twitter account (great self promotion), he wrote a short piece about getting things started. It is a beautifully written short post. It all starts with good kindling…

Starting a company is like starting a fire—harder than it sounds, and you have to do things in the right order.

To start a good fire, you need kindling. Something that will catch easily.

You can fail if you have great logs to burn but no kindling to get them started. On the flip side, if you only have newspaper and dry twigs, you’ll be off to a quick start, but your fire won’t last long.

There aren’t many fuels that start easily and burn hot and long. So starting with kindling and then transferring the heat to something bigger is key.

Also, lighter fluid helps—but only for a short while and only if applied at the right time. Be careful.

Sorry for the lack of posts for a while. I have been very busy with projects. However this came across me. It is from the Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator. The film is a spoof of Hitler and was released while World War 2 was still on. Over 70 years ago but it is even more relevant today than it was then.

“… You, the people have the power! The power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people have the power, to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure! …”

This video is an alternative version which mixes in alternative video. It is good also but Chaplin’s performance should not be missed. The great comedian speaks the truth. This version of The Great Dictator speech features the song Window by The Album Leaf.

Transcript of the speech:

I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor, that’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate;
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:
machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little:
More than machinery we need humanity;
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . .

Soldiers: don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written:
“The kingdom of God is within man”
Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

. . .

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.